Prof. Maria Montt 玛丽亚・蒙特
智利天主教大学国际事务副校长
Vice President for International Affairs, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
清华场致辞Speech at Tsinghua Session
Hello everyone. Good morning and good evening in China, Peru, and Brazil — I hope I am not missing any country. Especially to the students, we are very motivated and happy to have you here, and I am also very happy to see many old friends, new friends, and future friends. It is really a pleasure for me to be able to welcome you to this Youth Challenge to alleviate poverty.
On behalf of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, I would like to thank you all for being here and express our sincere thanks to Tsinghua, and especially Professor Chen Taotao, who, with her energy, brings us together once again for such an important challenge. I would like to emphasize how welcome and how happy I am to see all the students from the different universities. By choosing to participate in this initiative, you take an important step — a step that requires commitment, openness, and the willingness to engage with complex realities. Your presence here motivates us, but it also reflects your own motivation, responsibility, and genuine interest in contributing to positive change.
Young people play a vital role in addressing poverty worldwide. You bring energy, creativity, and new perspectives. But as we know, poverty is not only an economic issue: it affects health, education, dignity, opportunity, and overall well-being. Because of this, it is central to address it in order to promote sustainable development and reduce inequality across countries and regions.
This challenge is also a valuable platform for dialogue, collaboration, and exchange. It encourages international and interdisciplinary teamwork, and it allows you to learn about different experiences and perspectives. It also strengthens cooperation between China and Latin America, even though we are 12 hours apart and separated by an ocean. It fosters mutual engagement, understanding, and shared approaches, and helps us find what we have in common as we address global challenges.
So the relationships that you will build throughout this program are equally important. The conversations you have and the connections that you create may influence your future paths — I am sure they will. And the ideas that you develop here can really become the starting point for new initiatives, new research projects, public policies, and different ways of impacting our societies locally and globally.
So your participation, students, sends a powerful message: collaboration is not only possible, but necessary. You show how this is done. You are already the young leaders from China and Latin America who work together with a sense of purpose and responsibility. At the Catolica in Santiago, we are deeply committed to educating global citizens and to supporting young people as they develop the skills, values, and leadership needed to face global challenges. We believe in dialogue, in respect, and in collaboration. And I will emphasize dialogue, respect, and collaboration as key principles when you work in teams from different backgrounds, universities, countries, and cultures.
I am confident that you will approach this challenge with creativity, dedication, and enthusiasm. I wish you great success. You will see us around, and I hope that you will soon have the opportunity to interact very closely with our students from Chile and from our university — although I can already see many of you here from different universities, and it is very nice to see all your messages, so please continue writing in the chat. So thank you very much to all of you for being here. Special thanks to Professor Chen Taotao, whose energy keeps moving us and brings us here again for a third year, pushing this project forward for our students and for the future of both our regions. Thank you very much.
大家好。向中国、秘鲁和巴西的朋友们道一声早上好、晚上好 —— 希望我没有漏掉哪个国家。尤其是同学们，我们非常有动力，也非常高兴你们来到这里；同时，我也非常高兴见到许多老朋友、新朋友，以及未来的朋友。能够欢迎大家来到这场青年减贫挑战活动，我感到非常荣幸。
我谨代表智利天主教大学，感谢大家的到来，也向清华大学，特别是向陈涛涛教授，致以我们诚挚的谢意。正是她以充沛的能量，再一次把我们聚集在一起，共同面对这样一个重要的挑战。我也想特别强调，看到来自不同大学的同学们来到这里，我感到非常欢迎，也非常高兴。你们选择参与这项倡议，本身就是迈出了重要的一步 —— 这一步意味着投入、开放，以及直面复杂现实的意愿。你们的到来激励着我们，同时也体现出你们自身的动力、责任感，以及希望为积极改变作出贡献的真诚愿望。
青年在应对全球贫困问题中发挥着至关重要的作用。你们带来了活力、创造力和新的视角。但正如我们所知道的，贫困不仅仅是一个经济问题，它也影响健康、教育、尊严、机会以及整体福祉。因此，解决贫困问题对于促进可持续发展、减少国家和地区之间的不平等至关重要。
这项挑战同时也是一个非常宝贵的对话、合作与交流平台。它鼓励国际化和跨学科团队合作，也让大家有机会了解不同的经验和视角。它还在加强中国与拉丁美洲之间的合作，尽管我们相隔 12 个小时的时差，也隔着一片海洋。它促进彼此投入、相互理解和共同的方法，也帮助我们在应对全球挑战时找到彼此的共同点。
因此，你们在这个项目中建立起来的人际关系同样重要。你们展开的对话，以及建立起的联结，都可能影响你们未来的人生路径 —— 我相信一定会如此。而你们在这里形成的想法，也完全有可能成为新的倡议、新的研究项目、公共政策以及在本地和全球层面影响社会的新方式的起点。
所以，同学们，你们的参与本身就在传递一个有力的信息：合作不仅是可能的，而且是必要的。你们正在向大家展示，这件事应该如何去做。你们已经是在以目标感和责任感共同合作的中拉青年领袖。对位于圣地亚哥的智利天主教大学来说，我们始终致力于培养具有全球视野的公民，也致力于支持年轻人在成长过程中形成应对全球挑战所需要的技能、价值观和领导力。我们相信对话、尊重与合作。我也想再次强调，对话、尊重与合作，是当你们和来自不同背景、不同大学、不同国家、不同文化的人在同一个团队中工作时，最重要的原则。
我相信你们会以创造力、投入和热情来面对这项挑战。我衷心祝愿大家取得成功。之后你们还会继续见到我们，我也希望你们很快就能有机会和来自智利、来自我们大学的同学们进行非常深入的交流 —— 当然，我现在已经看到这里有很多来自不同大学的同学了，也很高兴看到大家在聊天区发来的信息，所以请继续在聊天区留言。最后，再次感谢大家今天来到这里。也特别感谢陈涛涛教授，她源源不断的能量一直在推动着我们，让我们能够连续第三年聚在这里，为我们的学生、也为我们两个地区的未来继续推动这个项目。非常感谢大家。
